BioViva CEO Elizabeth Parrish talks about the future of drug development in tackling ageing

BioViva focuses on gene therapy to achieve this by working on making cells healthier and creating an organism that remains in homeostasis for longer.

Elizabeth Parrish believes strongly in her work and research that she has become “Patient Zero” in her own anti-ageing experiment.

She receives two different injections in her role as n=1. Firstly, a telomerase gene therapy which is expected to increase the length of telomeres at the ends of chromosomes.

Telomeres are segments of DNA whose shortening is associated with ageing and degenerative diseases.

Secondly, she also receives a myostatin inhibitor which BioViva believes will prevent age-associated muscle loss.

Initial results from March 2016 have shown that her telomeres have lengthened by approximately 20 years, from 6.1kb to 7.33kb implying that Parrish’s leukocytes (white blood cells) have become biologically younger.